With Seth Smith fighting a flu bug, Rockies manager Jim Tracy decided to use Jay Payton, not Dexter Fowler, in the outfield Sunday.

That, in a snapshot, shows what kind of impact Payton has made in his three-week cameo with the Rockies.

Said Tracy, when a reporter mentioned that Payton had given the Rockies a lift: “I think it’s even more than a lift. I think it’s a statement, and I’m all for hearing statements like this one that’s being made here.”

Payton is hitting .435 (10-for-23) after his infield single that broke up Matt Cain’s no-hitter after 7 1/3 innings. Payton also broke up a no-hitter by Cain in 2006, doubling for the A’s only hit.

Said Cain: “I know he did it to me in Oakland. . . . He’s a guy who plays hard. He ran that ball out as hard as he could. I could hear him running down the line from the mound, and more credit to him. You could just hear him trying to get after it.”

It would be easy for the Rockies to re-sign Payton to a minor-league contract for 2011. But at 37, Payton is auditioning for other clubs as much as helping the Rockies hang by a thread in the pennant race.

“First and foremost, this is where I’d like to be,” said Payton. “It would be great if I could come back and be the fourth or fifth outfielder to start the season. If that’s not in the cards, I’ll have to see if another team says, ‘We could use a guy like that.’

“Whatever happens, I’m not putting on a minor-league uniform again next year.”

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Hammel said. “I did know he’s had some issues, but they’ve got the Tuna, Bill Parcells, over there. He finds a way to keep them in line.”

Footnotes.

Tracy planned to start Ian Stewart on Sunday, but Stewart also is fighting flu-like symptoms. . . . Tracy, on Esmil Rogers, he of the nine earned runs in his last inning: “He’s been dynamic up to that point. He gives up the base hit and thinks, ‘I’ve got to throw harder.’ Then he starts to throw harder and further mislocates and gets into bad counts. That eliminates the guesswork for a hitter.” . . . Giants pitchers have allowed three runs or fewer in 19 out of 20 games. Their 18-game streak that ended Saturday was tied for the third- longest in baseball history.

When New England won the toss, Patriots captain Devin McCourty thought: “As soon as I saw it was heads, I was like: I’ve seen this before. I know what happens at the end of this one.” Does the NFL need to change its overtime rules?

Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, despite being the only center among the NBA’s top 10 in assists per game (7.7) while leading also leading the Northwest division leaders in scoring (19.6 per game) and rebounding (10.0 per contest), ranked No. 7 among Western Conference frontcourt players in the NBA All-Star Game fan voting (1.128 million votes) as of Jan. 17.